BR666T
Member
Maybe, but 2021.44.30.2 is being installed only on Model 3, S and X so far according to TeslaFi.
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Model Y heat pump issues
- Thread starter MrYman
- Start date
BR666T
Member
A mobile tech just visited to make sure our Model Y had no hardware issues causing our heating problem. Diagnostics showed everything was ok. He believed things would be fixed by firmware only and that the current firmware is expecting sensor tolerances that are too tight. My speculation: they have changed some of the sensors and they are responding differently in cold temperatures.
Interestingly, he told me that the Model Y has a much smaller louvre on the grill than the Model 3, S and X. Which might explain why 2021.44.30.2 is getting pushed only to those vehicles.
Please don't take any of the above as gospel.
Something is off with the Front Air Vent flap system. It gets into 40s here in Arizona and the grill stays open regardless. I had Tesla look into it when I took it in for Garage opener install, and they said everything checks out. Shouldn't the flap be closed when the car is idle and temp is cool!
So, the "grill flap" excuse that seems to be going around, can someone explain why a car that's washed daily to get rid of snow/slush build up still get the fault and if it's a "grill flap" issue, then why does the fault go away after a restart of the car (because that's the only way I can resolve the multiple heat failures I've had and it also takes at least 10min+ for heat pump to finally work again after the restart)?
I find that it's much more than just the "grill flap", and there is a heat pump design flaw, that Tesla's (annual winter) updates will just be software to ignore sensors and keep pushing the design flaw of the heat pump (whatever it is), until eventually the heat pump will fail (out of warranty too) and owners will then be given the big FU by Tesla and stuck with the bill to replace the "physical" hardware that no OTA update will ever be able to do
My MY is only 4 month old, and Tesla has had the issue last year with previous year heat pumped MY/M3...this has definitely got to be a design flaw of the heat pump than just "oh, it's this other thing" and not the heat pump
It sucks driving on trips in subzero weather to have your heat go out on you and you're then stuck with no exit for miles to stop safely and reset your car to maybe un-fault whatever faulted.
Anyway, don't be a Tesla apologist (just because you're a shareholder) and let's get down to the real issue, instead of just having repeated winter updates to "maybe" ignore a problem until winter is over (we all know how anal Tesla is about recalling cars)
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I don't know whether it is a design flaw or not, but I must agree. It can't just be the flap.
It seems to be several different problems. Might even not be related to each other.
- Heat pump failure, temporary. Solved by complete restart of car. Could very well be related to the error signal from the flap. Reset = error signal gone. Some report error to return shortly after. Flap still open? = new error signal. Restart solved the problem for this trip? No idea why
- Heat pump failure. Needs service. Some parts need to be changed. Also related? Or just mechanical failure.
- Unstable cabin temperature. Mostly reported when driving in temperatures below -10 to -15C. Cabin temp drops for 5-10 min, then returning. Or needs restart. Can't really imagine how this problem is related to the intake flap. Something to do with the octovalve sw-control? Or design flaw?
- Unstable cabin temperature when outside temperature suddenly drops. Experienced and logged when it dropped from -18 to -28 in a few km.
- Cabin temp dropped when driving long stretches of downhill. Temp returned when road flattened.
- Cabin temp too high. Need to strip down to underwear even if temp is set to 18C. Happened after 44.25.2
etc.
There's a lot of "noice" from owners in forums, twitter, facebook etc. regarding heating problems in TMY and TM3, but not really that easy to pinpoint: Is the problem random? Constant? Same problem under equal conditions? Logged? Systematic tested and confirmed? "Someone said they ..."?
Maybe the comments by ke6gwf - Ben Blackburn will help a bit. (Look for ke6gwf - Ben Blackburn in the comments section)
Has this dude ever driven in the snow? You'd have to stop every few miles to keep it "clean" from snow when there is snow on the road...
I applied 2021.44.30.6 and I still have the same issue (VCfront_a447, no heat). I wanted to add that I've noticed strange behaviour from the front louver as well - they never seem to close anymore. Possibly coinciding with some ice buildup earlier this week. Maybe they got damaged in the process? They do seem to articulate, they just seem to revert back to the open position. I haven't tried rebooting the car since the software update was applied though. It's only -4ºC here now. Cmon Tesla....
BR666T
Member
I asked what the error code was in the Canada forum, so this answers that. I doubt the problem has anything to do with louvres at that temperature. Service time!
Many thanks to those Canadian members who notified Transport Canada. That seems to have been the tipping point to get this issue some real visibility. Apparently TC and NHTSA talk to each other, and Tesla is now dealing with NHTSA as well (discussions, no recall at this point).
That got it on all the general EV and Tesla fan sites, so now it's really out in plain sight. The only problem is that the public now thinks this is a very new issue, when in fact failures started happening the first time it got cold after the heat pumps were first released LAST winter.
So it's taking a full year to get some action, but it's finally happening. Can't thank you guys enough. If Tesla can get a fix together quickly enough to show THIS WINTER that the problem is well and truly solved, a Y will be back in contention as my next EV.
That got it on all the general EV and Tesla fan sites, so now it's really out in plain sight. The only problem is that the public now thinks this is a very new issue, when in fact failures started happening the first time it got cold after the heat pumps were first released LAST winter.
So it's taking a full year to get some action, but it's finally happening. Can't thank you guys enough. If Tesla can get a fix together quickly enough to show THIS WINTER that the problem is well and truly solved, a Y will be back in contention as my next EV.
Hopefully with the pressure from NHTSA and Transport Canada there will be some action here. Part of the reason Transport Canada is ticked off is because when a manufacturer learns about a safety issue they are supposed to contact Transport Canada as well as the impacted owners immediately. We all know how well Tesla communicates as in they pretty much never communicate at all.
There's complaints on Twitter and such from Tesla fanatics for the government agencies investigating but I assume all of us really just want the same thing here. We need this fixed. Sadly it seems the new .7 update did not actually address the issue.
It is hard to notify impacted owners until you have determined the root cause.
I don't know about Transport Canada, but here in the US you normally don't notify anyone, NHTSA or the owner, until you have completed your investigation, determined the root cause, and identified what vehicles are likely impacted. (Unless a significant amount of time has passed and you still can't identify the issue, then you notify NHTSA, but normally not the owners at that point.)
It appears that the root cause, or causes, haven't been identified yet. (And there are very likely multiple different issues presenting with similar symptoms.)
Not the case here. I think the owners who found themselves hours from anywhere in -30°C temps with their family in the car would have appreciated a heads up before heading out onto the highway.
You made it seem like you're 3-4 hours from the nearest town and driving the EV in -30. The range itself would likely limit this journey and I would venture to guess that most live much closer to some form of civilization than this. I live "hours" from the nearest big town (ie Denver), but there are plenty of spots to stop between here and there if needed.
With that said, the coldest I've seen recently was -24C and if I didn't have heat on the way to work (30 mins highway) it would be less than pleasant and I wouldn't exactly be pleased either.
